French and British LBBG in Gent!

This afternoon, during a short break, I checked a few places in Gent to see if there were any c-ringed LBBG's present. To my surprise, I soon found a bird with a large red ring, which turned out to be one of Philippe Dubois' birds. This is my first French bird in Gent! After this, I also saw a metal-ringed bird, which I unfortunately could not read entirely. However, I could read "London" (and 4 letters too), so this was a British bird, also a first for me in Gent... Also 2 birds from Roland-Jan Buijs his project, including 1 new one.

LBBG red 254N (P. Dubois), my first French bird in Gent. These rings are not the easiest to read...

LBBG blue 1N (RJ Buijs), my first observation this year (I saw this bird 3 times last spring).

LBBG red VH (RJ Buijs), a new bird to me.

Back again!

After several weeks without ring-reading I finally found some time again to look for some c-ringed gulls. I went to the harbour of Oostende, where I ran into Davy Bosman, who was checking some of the nests he is studying. I could join him and visit the roof-breeding colony, great to see these birds there (and also some of the first freshly-ringed chicks)! After this I tried to find some more rings, and managed to get 18 ringed birds in total, all from Belgium (12 c-rings and 6 metal rings), and quite a few of them new birds for me. The breeding LBBG's looked very nice, good to be back at the c-rings :-)

ad Herring gull blue AVAK (E. Stienen), this one apparently was in rather poor condition. It was ringed as a chick in 1999.

ad Herring gull blue MWA.Z (E. Stienen), near it's nesting site.

4th cal Herring gull blue CLA.V (E. Stienen).

ad LBBG blue HYA.F (E. Stienen).

ad LBBG blue GSA.B (E. Stienen).

ad LBBG blue DNA.N (E. Stienen).

Still new arrivals

This afternoon I was able to read 8 c-ringed LBBG's, which is a nice number for here. 3 birds were new ones for this year, but I had seen all of them in previous springs. The following birds were seen:

white J.J
white U.1 (first time this year)
white F.G
red PC (first time this year)
red E4
red LF
blue HF
blue 82 (first time this year, I didn't see this one last spring, so today was a nice surprise).

LBBG blue 82 (RJ Buijs - F Roels), only my second observation, previous one was March 29th 2009, exactly 2 years ago :-)

LBBG white U.1 (RJ Buijs), first observation this year, last spring I saw this bird 4 times between April 4th and May 2nd (this last observation was made in one of the breeding colonies in Vlissingen).

Lots of LBBG arriving

Today I had only little time and made a short trip to some of the best patches in Gent. Many LBBG's present, and lots of new rings. In total I managed to read 8 of them (all from RJ Buijs), of which 3 were new ones:
white J.J
white U.U
white F.G
red E4
red EB
red HY
yellow 8Y
blue 22

Also nice was that Black-headed gull yellow EHNP (T Audenaert - G Spanoghe) was still present, I hadn't seen that one since the end of January.

I also visited the breeding colony of Black-headed gulls at Molsbroek, Lokeren, where I saw one c-ringed bird, yellow EEEY (locally ringed, 2 years ago).

Black-headed gull yellow EHNP (T Audenaert - G Spanoghe), Gent.

LBBG white U.U (RJ Buijs), my first observation of this bird.

LBBG red HY (RJ Buijs), present at exactly the same spot as last year.

LBBG yellow 8Y (RJ Buijs), also present here last year.

Red squirrel, Molsbroek Lokeren.

New arrivals

Yesterday, on a trip through Gent, I was very pleased to find several newly-arrived LBBG's, of which a few are well known to me. The first c-ringed bird however was a Belgian-ringed Herring (blue M.LAF), a very nice sighting since this is only the 2nd time I see a bird from this project here, most of them seem to stay closer to the coast. Later on I found 7 c-ringed LBBG's, all from RJ Buijs: blue HF again, blue GF (new bird to me), red MT (6th sighting, and 3rd spring in a row), white K.P (new), red E4 (12th sighting, 3rd spring here), and the pair red LF (18th sighting, 3rd spring) and white M.8 (12th sighting, 3rd spring).
With warmer weather expected the following days, more birds will probably arrive.

2nd cy Herring gull blue M.LAF (E Stienen).

LBBG red MT (RJ Buijs), with unringed partner.

LBBG's red LF and white M.8 (RJ Buijs).

LBBG blue GF (RJ Buijs - F Roels).

3 more rings

Another short tour around my patches in Gent, on which I could read 3 rings: Black-headed gull white VSH again, but finally close enough to get decent pictures; LBBG blue HF (the 12th time I see this one, and the 3rd spring I see it here, I last saw it on July 7th last year, it hasn't been seen since then); and finally Herring gull yellow W3 (my first sighting). Very enjoyable again, I hope to find time to look for more c-ringed birds in the next weeks.

Black-headed gull white VSH (TK Pedersen-, still present on its wintering location.

LBBG blue HF (RJ Buijs & F Roels), the 3rd spring I see this one here.

Herring gull yellow W3 (RJ Buijs), my 1st observation of this bird.

The return

Back in Gent after a superb four-week holiday in Thailand (maybe I will post some pictures later). Today was the first day I was able to look for rings, and I was hoping to see the return of the first Lesser black-backed gulls. I soon saw some of them, and just a little bit later the first ring was already found, so they are definately back, truly a great sight! The first bird was white Y.H, my first observation of this bird (it wintered in Spain the past 2 winters). Also there were the Danish Black-headed gull white VSH, and a Belgian metal-ringed Herring gull which I saw there in November too.

Next stop was the Blaarmeersen, where I was very happy to see LBBG white H.K, a well-known bird to me. I saw it for the first time there in 2003 (it then wore a Spanish orange ring), and then again last October. Later this winter it was seen in Pinto, Spain (J Marchamalo), and now back in Belgium, on its way to its breeding grounds! I also saw white N.S there, and RJ Buijs just informed me these birds are partners! With this very succesfull day in mind, I will try to find many more c-ringed LBBG's this spring.

ad LBBG white Y.H (RJ Buijs), my first observation of this one.

ad LBBG white H.K (RJ Buijs), my 4th observation.

ad LBBG white N.S (RJ Buijs), my first observation, this is the partner of white H.K.